Transient spacers, templates, adhesives, binders, coatings, and molds are used in numerous industrial applications. In many applications, it is desirable to remove these materials during or after a manufacturing process. For example, in lost foam and lost wax metal casting technologies, a premade form/template pattern of a part is typically made out of plastic or wax.
The form/template is then used to prepare a casting mold, such as a metal casting mold. Metal casting typically involves one of two different processes. In one process, the form/template is removed leaving a cavity suitable to subsequently receive the molten metal. The cavity is typically created by burning out the form/template by firing the casting mold, or by dissolving the form/template in an appropriate solvent. In the other process, the molten metal is poured into the casting mold, contacting the plastic or wax form/template so as to displace the form/template from the mold. During this process, the form/template burns off from the mold as the molten material causes the form/template to decompose at elevated temperatures.
In spite of the wide spread use of these processes, potential environmental risks exist. For example, when the form/template is burned from the mold, noxious gases are generated and emitted. Moreover, when the form/template is dissolved in a solvent, potentially hazardous organic liquids are often employed as the solvent. It would be desirable to utilize techniques in forming molds and the like which employ materials capable of being displaced which do not utilize the above potentially hazardous techniques.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a method of removing material used in applications such as forming molds, which do not require potentially environmentally hazardous techniques.